Recent technological developments have allowed a number of industries to benefit from the low cost and efficient operations of UAVs. For example, the agriculture industry uses UAVs to survey land and monitor irrigation systems; the filming industry uses UAVs to capture camera shots that are not possible using conventional filming methods; and the architecture industry uses UAVs to create 3D images of properties for rendering structural landscapes.
An industry of particular importance that may also benefit from use of UAVs is the delivery industry. Many companies are beginning to realize the potential benefits UAVs may provide to the delivery industry, and are developing UAV-based delivery methods. One such UAV-based delivery method is a fully autonomous ‘point-to-point’ delivery method, where a UAV flies directly from the sender to the recipient.
However, current UAV-based point-to-point delivery methods present certain concerns in that the proximity of the UAV to bystanders, wildlife and/or physical structures along the delivery route may be undesirable due to the potential noise pollution, privacy concerns relative to drone cameras, demands associated with UAV landing space, and safety issues such as potential in-flight and landing collisions. A possible solution to these concerns is to have a UAV deliver the package to a remote delivery station. However, such use of remote delivery stations undermines the autonomous point-to-point delivery method by requiring that recipients travel to the delivery station to pick up packages, or that a separate delivery service be provided to transport packages from the remote delivery station to the recipient.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a UAV-based delivery system and method that provides a fully automated point-to-point delivery of packages, while also addressing the concerns that are presented in flying a UAV directly from a sender to a recipient.